Ray Stevens: CabaRay concerts return in 2 weeks

Hello fans of Ray Stevens!! Well, we're getting more and more close to the CabaRay showroom opening for the 2023 concert season. A couple of days ago Ray uploaded a video tour of the showroom. The video was filmed in the early days of the CabaRay when he used a white piano on stage (he's long since returned to the red piano he popularized in Branson, Missouri in the 1990s) but the video works so well as a publicity piece that it was uploaded onto his Facebook page a few days ago. The Facebook upload is titled 'Ray Stevens CabaRay showroom Explanation' whereas the other video is titled 'Ray Stevens CabaRay tour'. In each video clip Ray shows the interior of the showroom and speaks of it's inspiration and the reasons it was built.  

I'm sure a lot of Ray's fans that had, for years, wondered if he'd put on concerts again have long since become aware of the CabaRay. It's west of Nashville in an area called Bellevue. It had it's grand opening in 2018 and so it's been part of that region for 5 years. If you're familiar with the region then you'll probably know exactly where the showroom is. When you're on the highway near the showroom's location you're going to be able to see it from your vehicle...as it sits on top of a hill...and if you're driving in the area, especially after sunset, the big red letters of the CabaRay are lit up so bright that it's impossible not to see it. Once you get onto the road where the showroom is you'll see more detail such as the marquee sign that shows the time of the concerts each Saturday. 

The showroom doors open at 5:30pm and the concert begins at 7:30pm. There's a piano bar which is where a lot of the fans gather prior to the concert. There is also a gift shop and there are all kinds of paintings and illustrations hanging on the walls that fans can look at as they await the main floor to open. The main floor is where fans who purchased floor level seats sit at, of course, but at the CabaRay it doubles as the area where the pre-ordered dinner is served. Yes, in case this showroom is brand new to you and you're reading about it for the first time, the CabaRay serves an optional dinner, now, a policy that began a couple of seasons ago. The dinner is no longer automatically included with the price of floor level seating as it had been in the first couple of seasons (2018, 2019). 

If you're wanting a fine dining-type of dinner prior to the concert you can elect to add the dinner price to your concert ticket. Some fans, I strongly assume, wanted the opportunity to sit on the main floor without having to include a dinner and so a couple of seasons ago Ray came up with the idea to have the dinner optional. There are balcony seats...and in the history of the CabaRay no dinner has never been served up there, for obvious reasons, but the staff do provide beverages for fans who like to sit up in the balcony. It's theater style seating in the balcony...there's no room for plates, utensils, food, and all that comes with a dinner when you're sitting in a seat up in a balcony. The 2023 concert season at the CabaRay begins on March 11th...just 2 weeks from today! All the information can be found when you click HERE. 

Here's a video tour of the showroom. Ray explains the red leather booths and discusses the record producers who are immortalized on the walls. 

Ray Stevens: The Year of The Streak...

Many music historians and writers, in general, have noted over the decades is that the year of 1974 is referred to as the year of the streak. The actual concept wasn't exactly brand new but for whatever reason the spring/summer of 1974 consisted of hundreds of news reports of people from all walks of life in various places across the country running naked in public and how the slang expression, 'streaking', was being used to describe a phenomena that quickly became a pop culture fad. The reports that seemed to appear the most originated at a college campus which, in turn, created the image of the phenomena being something attached to young adults and a rebellious sub-culture. Ray Stevens recorded "The Streak" early in 1974...in a previous blog entry in March of this year I mentioned the single's debut on the Hot 100 pop chart. I wrote a lot about the song's history and if I recall correctly I posted images of various single releases of the song in addition to posting an image of the album it originally appeared on, Boogity Boogity. The seemingly endless reports of streaking as well as an unforgettable moment at the nationally televised Academy Awards that year caused the fad to reach a boiling point you might say...and "The Streak" streaked up the Hot 100...and in no time at all it was sitting at the top of the pop charts. It hit number one on May 18, 1974 for it's first of three weeks. The single, as mentioned, debuted late in March and skyrocketed to the top.

The single, obviously, became one of the biggest hits in Ray's career and it was one of the biggest hits of the year but surprisingly it wasn't the top hit of that year. There's been some speculation on my part and I'm sure other fans of Ray Stevens have also speculated that "The Streak" should have been ranked higher on the year-end chart for 1974 given not only how many weeks it spent at the top in the United States but also it's number one finishes internationally (Canada, United Kingdom, New Zealand), it's phenomenal performances in Australia and Ireland (peaking in the runner-up position in both countries), as well as the sales figures that were reported throughout the year; numerous sources cite the single as having sold more than five million copies.

"The Streak" ranked among the Top-10 pop hits of the year in 1974...which wasn't unexpected given the evidence I just provided...but the singles that ranked higher than "The Streak" for the year, well, a couple of them could have been ranked a little bit lower in comparison to the overall commercial dominance of "The Streak". So, with that in mind, I'll be ranting a little bit in the next couple of paragraphs. I generally don't advocate combative and bickering overtones but I can't help myself...what I'm ranting about ties into the career of Ray Stevens and I have a feeling a lot of us fans feel the same way:

I know the rankings, generally, break everything down into smaller segments: weeks on the Hot 100, weeks in the Top-40, weeks in the Top-10, sales achievements, award recognition, etc. and so I realize that the year-end charts that Billboard publishes aren't exclusively sales driven. The top song of the year, "The Way We Were", won two Academy Awards (giving the song much more prominence) in addition to it being a million seller and a chart topper for several weeks...and it was on the chart for more than 20 weeks according to research...and so I can see why Billboard chose to bestow the top song of the year to that recording. There's a couple of songs among the Top-10 that I think should have come in under "The Streak" simply based on commercial performance, though. Billboard placed a single called "Come and Get Your Love" in their year-end chart at number four but yet research shows that single sold half a million copies, peaked at number five during it's original chart run, but it spent more than 20 weeks on the Hot 100. So, in this instance, the fourth biggest hit of 1974 claimed that position through strength of it's presence on the charts since it sold less than "The Streak", for example.

The total number of weeks on the Hot 100 also holds true for an instrumental, "Love's Theme". It was on the Hot 100 for more than 20 weeks...reaching the top for one week...it reached the Hot 100 late in 1973 and peaked in February of 1974. It was certified a Gold record (half a million in sales). "Dancing Machine" was kept out of the number one spot, ironically, by "The Streak". In the year-end chart for 1974 "Dancing Machine" ranks higher, though, because it was charted longer. I'm not picking on those songs or the acts that recorded them nor am I trying to start any sort of flame war I'm merely pointing out that the biggest selling single of the year, "The Streak", didn't rank among the Top-5 and how several singles that sold less, or didn't even claim a number one peak during their chart run, ranked higher than "The Streak" in the year-end look back. Oh yes I'm coming across as a nit-picker, perhaps, quibbling over year-end chart placement. I've spent several paragraphs agonizing about the singles that ranked higher than "The Streak" in the year-end review...but I hadn't mentioned the singles that ranked lower. Ray's single was on the Hot 100 for 17 weeks...and it came in one spot higher than Elton John's "Bennie and the Jets" for the year. Talk about quibbling...Elton's hit was charted 18 weeks...but because it was number one for a single week it ranked one spot lower than "The Streak" for the year.

However, weeks at number one didn't necessarily mean you'd receive a higher year-end finish. A Paul Anka recording, in particular, was a number one hit for three weeks in the fall of 1974 and was certified a Gold record but the year-end ranking for that single was 28. I should point out that the year-end rankings consist of 100 songs...and so finishing in the Top-10 of the year is outstanding...and I also realize that the longer a single's been available the chances are it'll have larger sales and chart statistics by the end of a year. Anyway...thanks for enduring my rantings about the year-end chart for 1974 as it pertains to "The Streak". A recent YouTube video upload surfaced of Ray performing the song a decade later, in 1984, on a country music television series...



The thing one has to know when it comes to stage performances of "The Streak" from Ray Stevens is that they generally feature an elaborate, self-satirical performance. The delivery of this performance is a mainstay of his concerts dating back to the mid 1970s. Ray would mock the critics of the song by performing a 'culturally sophisticated' rendition to please their ears, for laughs obviously. In this video clip the first part is missing (where Ray, as the reporter, announces that they're on the scene at the supermarket) but in performance Ray would launch into the song and after performing the opening verse, which takes place at the supermarket, he would stop the performance and make the announcement of how despised the song is by music critics worldwide (in earlier years resulting in a shower of boos from the audience) but in order to smooth things over and get on their favorite lists again he reveals that he's re-arranged the song; after which he'd launch into the rendition you hear at the beginning of the video clip.

If you have his VHS, Ray Stevens Live!, released in 1993, you'll see an even more elaborate performance of the song. A 1975 appearance on Pop! Goes the Country features one of the earliest deliveries of the 'culturally sophisticated' arrangement. The song itself isn't performed but Ralph Emery, the show's host, refers to a new version of "The Streak" in conversation and Ray demonstrates how he performs a verse of the song in concerts.

It's a Ray Stevens Birthday...

Hello one and all...today is the birthday of our fearless Entertainer, Ray Stevens. Born in Clarkdale, Georgia as Harold Ragsdale on January 24, 1939 the Georgia-born talent eventually became known all over the world as Ray Stevens. Music, one could say, has long been the life of Ray Stevens, too. His first recordings came along in 1957 on a small label called Prep Records. In my previous blog entry I made mention of the fact that 2017 marks Ray's 60th year in the music business...and he turns 78 today. Yes, if you do the math it's a fascinating tidbit of information. It means that 60 of Ray's 78 years on Earth have been spent in the music industry in some form or another. Given such a youthful start in the industry and being talented as a piano player (among several other instruments) it didn't take long for his presence on recording sessions to become something of a habit. He enrolled in Georgia State with the idea of studying music but during his college years he remained active as a recording artist on a series of record labels (Capitol, NRC, and eventually Mercury). A series of recordings from Ray hit the market...everything from love ballads aimed at teenagers to rhythm and blues...one obscure recording during this period happened to be an off the wall effort called "Cholly Wolly Chang", a blend of Hong Kong culture set to rock music. Ray's early recordings (1957-1960) can be found on CD but you'll have to dedicate yourself to finding the various CD's available that contain those early recordings. There is a CD from just a couple of years ago that includes the obscurities from that period and it's called Ahab, Jeremiah, Sgt. Preston and more...The Early Ray Stevens. The CD hit in 2014 and it's available on AMAZON. The site states that there's only 7 copies left and so if you're a devoted fan of Ray Stevens but haven't heard some his recordings from 1957-1960 then get that CD as soon as possible!!

As mentioned in the previous paragraph Ray recorded for a series of labels under the guidance of Bill Lowery. Prior to Ray's debut on vinyl in 1957 he had become something of a local celebrity thanks in part to radio station WGPC. In his memoir, Ray Stevens' Nashville, he recalls the time that he was promised a slot on the radio station on the condition that he find a female co-host. The radio program was described by Ray as a kind of sock hop and his role was simply to play rock music and rhythm and blues songs currently on jukeboxes nationally and locally. For those curious you can read the memories of the co-host, Mary Dale Vansant, by clicking this LINK. The link takes you to Albany High Times and their page devoted to that sock hop radio program she and Ray hosted. He began recording for the NRC label in the middle part of 1959 following brief stints on Capitol (1958) and Prep (1957). A recording for NRC in 1960 nearly became a national hit...a novelty called "Sgt. Preston of the Yukon". The single began appearing on the national radar and had climbed a special chart called Bubbling Under the Hot 100. This chart listed specific single releases that had began to break all over the country but hadn't obtained the sales requirements necessary to move onto the "big chart" as they called it. Ray had to take his recording off the market (well, NRC did) after the copyright holders of the Sgt. Preston character objected to the use of their property in the recording.

Ray's first Hot 100 hit arrived in 1961. For those that don't follow music popularity charts the Hot 100 is the name of the chart that lists the best-selling songs across the country in all formats. Chart methodologies have come and gone since then but in 1961 the chart was still largely being based on sales. The higher the sales the more likely pop music stations would play the song...and the airplay exposure, in theory, would increase sales even more. Ray often recalls that his near-hit with Sgt. Preston inspired him to try novelty songs and see if that would do the trick and get him national attention. Prior to that next release, however, he switched record labels. He departed NRC for the much more commercially successful and mainstream label, Mercury. Still living in Georgia in 1961 his debut for Mercury happened to be a novelty song...with a title that tested the memory of many disk jockeys and listeners and, also, tested their breathing control, too. The song's title?? None other than "Jeremiah Peabody's Polyunsatured Quick Dissolving Fast Acting Pleasant Tasting Green and Purple Pills". The song is appropriately abbreviated by many of us fans and we refer to it simply as "Jeremiah Peabody's Green and Purple Pills". The single hit the Hot 100...and climbed into the radio-driven Top-40! It opened the door...but the follow-up, "Scratch My Back", failed to scratch the charts, sad to say. The song is highly entertaining as is it's B-side...his version of "When You Wish Upon a Star". Ray moved to Nashville, Tennessee in January 1962...and he began a lengthy association with Shelby Singleton. Ray eventually became an A and R man for the label. In this role he found songs for artist's to record, assisted in production of the recordings, and as a session musician he played on other artist's records. One of his first sessions at Mercury included his recording of "Ahab the Arab". The song turns 55 this year. On the same day he also played on the recordings of "Wooden Heart", a song recorded by Joe Dowell and the massive Leroy Van Dyke hit, "Walk on By".

"Ahab the Arab" became a million selling Top-5 pop hit and it crossed over to the Rhythm and Blues chart and in the summer of 1962 it made him a star overnight as the saying goes. The song inspired an assortment of properties. His music publishing company had the name Ahab Music Company (BMI) until the mid 1970s when it changed to the more business-sounding Ray Stevens Music (BMI). Ray has several music publishing outlets but the bulk of the songs are published under Ray Stevens Music. The camel in "Ahab the Arab", Clyde, became the name of his personal record label in 1988. In 1991 he opened up a theater in Branson, Missouri. The design was inspired by the desert imagery mentioned in "Ahab the Arab" and throughout the venue one could see imagery that could've come directly out of Arabian Nights or Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves. Clyde the camel became his logo. Clyde Records gained it's first taste of profit in 1992/1993 during the VHS explosion in Ray's career. After the major record labels refused to finance/promote a home video from Ray titled Comedy Video Classics he took matters into his own hands and released the VHS on his own label, Clyde Records. This home video led to other home video releases...sold directly to customers through television commercials and print advertisements. By the mid 1990s he had sold more than 3,000,000 home videos through direct marketing. Comedy Video Classics, Ray Stevens Live!, and Get Serious! are landmarks in home video marketing. Clyde Records became something of a stand-by for Ray throughout the '90s and 2000s. If he happened to not be signed to a major label but wanted to release new music for the fans he'd simply release the music through mail-order via his fan club and later, after the fan club dissolved, he'd sell his music through his own website.

Some of the career milestones for Ray Stevens include record, single, and home video sales of a combined 20 million. 2 Grammy awards: a 1971 win for "Everything is Beautiful" and a 1976 win for "Misty". 3 Gold Singles: "Gitarzan" (1969), "Everything Is Beautiful" (1970), and "The Streak" (1974). Numerous Gold and Platinum albums and home videos (throughout the '80s and '90s). The fan-voted Music City News Country Awards honored Ray as Comedian of the Year for 9 consecutive years (1986-1994). In 2012 he released a 9-CD box set, The Encyclopedia of Recorded Comedy Music, a beautiful salute to comedy and novelty songs both past and present. Ray performs his versions of many, many, many novelty songs made popular by other artists plus he offers some of his own recordings, too. He hosted a summer television series for Andy Williams in 1970. In the latter half of 2014 he started hosting Ray Stevens' Nashville on the RFD cable channel. The series ran on RFD for a season and a half. In late 2016 the series became associated with PBS and this month (January 2017) it started popping up on scattered PBS stations across the country. The program's title has changed to Ray Stevens' CabaRay Nashville. 

In 2009 Ray added another dimension to his career...he began to release music video content on-line...specifically on the video hosting site, YouTube. At first he issued music videos from his past but in late 2009 he released a new recording, "We the People", and it's music video took off in a tremendous way. He became hot on the internet...releasing a string of music video content taking jabs at the Obama Administration and becoming a headliner at several Tea Party and Conservative events. Oh yes...saying that he added political humor to his career in 2010 is a huge understatement...the YouTube music videos he released during that time period, 2010-2013, became viral video sensations. Nearly all of them have obtained more than a million unique views (some topping more than three million!). At some point this year (2017) Ray's entertainment venue, CabaRay, is set to open. It's still under construction on River Road in Nashville. His television program, according to some reports, is eventually going to start taping at that venue and he's moving his offices and recording equipment from his longtime studio in Nashville to the CabaRay venue.

Happy Birthday to the one and only Ray Stevens!! May he forever remain creative, compelling, unpredictable, and entertaining!! Here's also hoping his television series comes to a PBS station in my area! Check your local PBS stations and see if you are receiving the program!

This week in Ray Stevens History: 1974...

Good late afternoon...the last day of April and this week in Ray Stevens history looks at 1974. Ray dominated the music media in the spring and summer of 1974 with his novelty song "The Streak". This past Sunday morning I was in my car driving to work and listening to AT40: The '70s, a syndicated radio program that re-airs classic countdown programs hosted by Casey Kasem. There's a companion series, AT40: The '80s, a re-airing of a 1980's countdown program, that I listen to on Saturday mornings on my way home from work.

Well, this past Sunday they aired the April 27, 1974 episode of AT40...and debuting in the Top-40 all the way up at #19 happened to "The Streak" by the one and only Ray Stevens. Casey remarked that the single had been positioned on the Hot 100 the previous week (April 20th) at #54 and it streaked up 35 spots to #19. Obviously the single was declared "the highest debuting song" of the week. Casey remarked, after the song had ended, that "it's on it's way to #1".

If I remember correctly from a chart that had been posted on-line several years ago, during the single's fourth week on the Hot 100, it leaped up closer to the Top-10 and then in the fourth week it was near the top and then in it's sixth week on the Hot 100 (it's 5th in the Top-40), "The Streak" reached #1. The date happened to be May 18, 1974. It stayed at #1 for 3 weeks. It reached #1 in Canada, the United Kingdom, and in New Zealand and the Top-5 in Ireland and Australia. It also reached the Top-5 on the Country Music chart in America (it hit #1 on Canada's Country Music chart and their Adult-Contemporary chart). On America's Adult-Contemporary chart, the novelty single hit the Top-15. The single reportedly sold more than five million copies and it ranked among the Top-10 singles of the year.

Ray Stevens: Nostalgia Valley, Part 24...

Good morning all...on this day back in 1974 guess who was sitting at #1 in the United Kingdom...none other than Ray Stevens with "The Streak". Ray had reached #1 in America several weeks prior with the streaking single...but it became an international hit and eventually sold more than five million copies worldwide. The single reached #1 in America and England plus it hit #1 in several other countries along the way. The song was written, produced, and arranged by Ray and it became a longer lasting hit than the actual streaking phase. The streaking fad seemed to dominate the news during the spring and summer of 1974 (judging by my research) and here was a song poking fun at the craze. It may have been a surprise to critics when the single finished in the Top-10 among 1974's biggest hits of the year...but then again it may not have been a surprise as it was a huge commercial hit.

The music critics then, like today, are notorious for panning novelty songs and this one is no exception. Given that it was a multi-million selling hit it created even more contempt and disgust among many music critics. Some radio stations stopped playing the song while it was still in the Top-10...and most stations stopped playing the song by summer's end. The single was so topical, of course, that it wasn't treated like a recurrent. Usually the singles that get airplay are played solidly for a couple of months and then the airplay slacks off...but some of the songs continue to get played for months on end long after the song has dropped out of the charts. The songs that get this treatment are said to have gone "recurrent". "The Streak" not getting a lot of recurrent airplay caused it's year-end Top-10 ranking to be even more of a surprise to some.

You should never underestimate the power of sales...and it was a huge seller!

On the strength of it's initial chart performance in the spring and summer of 1974, combined with the millions in sales it obtained, "The Streak" was ranked among the Top-10 for all of 1974.

In 1992 Ray made a music video of the song and included it in his million selling home video, Comedy Video Classics. The video was uploaded onto You Tube in 2009 and it's gotten 1,011,287 views so far. Here's a brief snap-shot of Ray's successful music videos on You Tube. Below are the music video's from Ray that have gotten at least half a million views (so far):

1. Come to the USA- 5,266,126 views

2. We The People- 4,402,155 views

3. Mississippi Squirrel Revival- 1,161,865

4. Osama Yo' Mama- 1,085,266

5. The Streak- 1,011,287

6. God Save Arizona- 748,058

7. Throw the Bums Out!- 731,957